Welcome to my Blog!
I hope to share here my irrepressible thoughts on news, music, books, arts, history, cultural events and such like.
In general these will be items, events and issues which I feel have no place on my website (which focusses on aviation history and my travel photography).

The item immediately below this would be the latest posting.

"Anybody, providing he knows how to be amusing, has the right to talk about himself. - Charles Baudelaire
Esse est percipi (To be is to be perceived)" ¬Bishop George Berkeley

"Not even I understand everything I am" ¬Aurelius Augustinus of Hippo

"I'm only myself in front of my typewriter" ¬Joan Didion (I'd replace 'typewriter' by 'desktop PC'..)

In 2013 I started a series of photo albums on Blurb.com, named '36Exp' (a subject adressed in 36 exposures, a reference to the exposures on most common rolls of 35 mm film: 12, 24 & 36.) back in the day.
The books can be ordered directly from the Blurb.com or Amazon.
www.blurb.com/user/ruudleeuw

CURRENT BLOG

Dutch Ice Sculpture Festival in the IJsselhallen in Zwolle (NL), from 16Dec23 - 25Feb24.

The best ice sculpting artists (numbering 40+ at this event) in the world come to Zwolle where they work in a large ice hall (De IJsselhallen) with 275,000 kilos of ice and 275.000 kilos of snow...
With that they build a magical and spectacular world of snow and ice sculptures of up to 6 metres tall.

My fingers were painfully cold due to keeping a hold of my camera in -15 C temperatures, but certainly worth it; amazing what these artists can create!

www.ijsbeelden.nl/en
Over 40 images on MyFlickr.com

Willem den Ouden (b.18Mar1928 in Haarlem) is a Dutch painter, printmaker, draughtsman and sculptor.
His work can be found in private and museum collections. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam acquired a representative group of his works on paper: a selection of his drawings, watercolours, etchings and lithographs from the 1950s to 2008.
Museum Het Valkhof in Nijmegen has completed Den Ouden's prints.
The Dordrechts Museum owns a number of drawings from the 1980s.
Oil paintings by Den Ouden can be seen in Museum het Valkhof, Museum Schloss Moyland and the Museum Henriette Polak in Zutphen, among others.

NL.wikipedia.org:_Willem_den_Ouden

The Hanseatic League was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe.
Growing from a few North German towns in the late 12th century, the League expanded between the 13th and 15th centuries and ultimately encompassed nearly 200 settlements across seven modern-day countries, ranging from Estonia in the north and east, to the Netherlands (Zutphen!) in the west, and Kraków, Poland, in the south.

The League originated from various loose associations of German traders and towns formed to advance mutual commercial interests, such as protection against robbers.
These arrangements gradually coalesced into the Hanseatic League, whose traders enjoyed toll privileges and protection in affiliated communities and their trade routes.
Economic interdependence and kinship ties between merchant families, who held important positions in towns, led to deeper political integration and the removal of obstacles to trade.
Hanseatic Cities gradually developed common trade regulations.

This exhibition details Zutphen's side of this shared history, how goods travelled from here into (a.o.) Germany and Denmark.

en.wikipedia.org:_Hanseatic_League
MuseaZutphen.nl

See my streetphoto pages for more: Streetphotos Index

One of the best buys in photobooks I made this year!

In the 20th century, any American driver or passenger would stop at gas stations at least weekly, and not just
for gas. Gas stations were also oases offering food and drink, car repairs, directions, maps and, importantly, bathrooms. Yet, beyond their appreciation as roadside novelties, their offerings to American culture, landscape and history have been little photographed.
From 1978 to 1981, David Freund analyzed the culture, architecture and landscape of gas stations in more than 40 US states.

The photographs show customers and workers in postures and actions peculiar to gassing up, or just hanging out. Architecture and signage, both corporate and vernacular, beckon passing drivers.
Regional landscapes hold and surround gas stations, each with its own landscape of designed plantings or scrappy volunteers.
Stations were also outposts for American networks other than petroleum, seen in telephone booths, mailboxes and powerlines. These and all that surrounds them spark recognition and recollection, accruing as elements of a nonlinear American narrative.

Of more than 200.000 gas stations in the United States at the time of this project, today they and their roles are mostly gone, existing now in memory and in this work.

I can't stop browsing these books, engaged in an 'armchair roadtrip'!

en.artbooksonline.eu/Gas Stop
www.davidfreundphotography.com

The impulse to do AMERICAN MUSIC, writes famed photographer Annie Leibovitz, "came from a desire to return to my original subject and look at it with a mature eye. Bring my experience to it…make it a real American tapestry".
Her ambitious idea became AMERICAN MUSIC, a stunning collection of photographs of the musicians, places and people that enrich the landscape of American music.

It was hard to make a selection, even after I decided to select the images for their photographic qualities (as they appealed to me) and less for the icons I so like (a.o. Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Steve Earle).

As Rolling Stone’s chief photographer for over 13 years, Leibovitz created a legendary body of work. Her portraits of some of the world’s most talented musicians capture more than the performer, they convey the art of making music.
For AMERICAN MUSIC, Leibovitz traveled across the country to juke joints in the Mississippi Delta, honkytonks in Texas, and jazz clubs in New Orleans “to take pictures in places that mean something.” In her signature style, she shares stunning portraits of American greats -- B.B. King, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Springsteen, Beck, Bob Dylan, Mary J. Blige, Jon Bon Jovi, Steve Earle, Ryan Adams, Miles Davis, Etta James, Pete Seeger, Emmylou Harris, Tom Waits, The Dixie Chicks, Dr. Dre, The Roots and many more.
If I counted correctly the hefty book contains 108 fantastic images.

AMERICAN MUSIC includes a commentary about the American Music project by Leibovitz, short essays by musicians Patti Smith, Rosanne Cash, Steve Earle, Mos Def, Ryan Adams, and Beck as well as biographical sketches of all the musicians.

It took me years to acquire an affordable secondhand edition, so glad I found one this year!

en.wikipedia.org:_Annie_Leibovitz

In 2018 I stayed at a hotel, a mountain resort, in Japan which catered for dog owners, taking them out of the city to a place where these disciplined dogs could run around and not be an inconvenience to the neighbours. The dogs were quiet and even often ate at the table!
One will appreciate my curiosity when I encountered this book recently and was able to learn a lot more about Japanese culture versus their pet dogs.

So many subjects and chapters provide interesting information. The first chapters is about all kind of Japanese dogs, many of the (mountain) dogs have gone (almost) extinct. Plenty of moving anecdotes on faithfull dogs and their love for their owner.
There's also a chapter on dogs in religion, at temples. shrines and festivals. They also feature a lot in all sorts of design, craft& trade, collectables, toys. A chapter on 'Pop Culture' show dogs in Manga comics,mascots and internet memes.
There's a chapter on their original role assisting hunters, for (e.g.) boar, helping the blind, therapy dogs, and other helpful roles. A chapter about 'Arists & Illustrators' conclude this funny and informative book. But why the font is super sized I do not know, probably something Japanese..

My Japan trip 2018 offers much more than dogs!

Brussels is considered the de facto capital of the European Union. But Brussels is also the capital of Belgium and, as such, the unofficial capital of surrealism.
This has not escaped the notice of twenty-something Cato Beljaars...
With an eye for peculiarities and a well-functioning camera, she roams the streets of the not very clean society of Brussels, recording absurdity, humour, creativity and joyful chaos. 

This book (w/ 200 pages!) is a pleasure to browse on repeated occasions!

EDITION 12 of the Amsterdam Lightfestival.
This winter, 20+ light artworks will illuminate Amsterdam's iconic canals. From 30.11.2023 to 21.01.2024, the artworks can be admired from the water or land.
The theme this year is around people's addiction to mobile appliances (how we are being controlled/ captured to keep scrolling) as well as what AI is capable of in art and what could be the dangers.

amsterdamlightfestival.com/EN/editie-12
www.flickr.com/photos/dutchsimba

More on my STREETPHOTOS COLOUR + STREETPHOTOS B&W
See also MyFlickr.com

'Het is OKÉ om kwaad te zijn op het Kapitalisme' | Bernie Sanders

The two-time presidential candidate Bernie Sanders makes his case with the usual horrifying numbers about the acceleration of inequality in America: 90% of our wealth is owned by one-tenth of 1% of the population; the wealth of 725 US billionaires increased 70% during the pandemic to more than $5tn; BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street now control assets of $20tn and are major shareholders in 96% of S&P 500 companies.

His unsparing view of the effects of “unfettered capitalism” is clear: it “destroys anything that gets in its way in the pursuit of profits.
It destroys the environment.
It destroys our democracy.
It discards human beings without a second thought.
It will never provide workers with the fulfillment that Americans have a right to expect from their careers. And it is propelled by uncontrollable greed and contempt for human decency.”

Quite recently we were reminded of how this system works. Joe Biden released a budget with perfectly modest proposals for tax increases, like a 25% minimum tax on the wealthiest Americans and a seven-percentage-point raise in the corporate tax rate to 28%, which would still leave it seven points lower than it was before Donald Trump gutted it with his gigantic tax giveaways.
Instantly, experts owned and operated by the billionaires started spewing their familiar bilge, like these moving words from the Cato Institute: “Higher tax rates on the wages of a narrow segment of the United States’ most productive executives and business leaders will have strong disincentives against their continued work and other negative behavioral effects that translate into a less dynamic, slower growing economy."

The book includes many more initiatives and (proposed) legislation by Sanders and his team, as well as the politics in the Democratic Party blocking his DP candidacy for Presidency of the US.
Even while this is a book about the 'ultra-capitalism' in the US (and about Bernie Sanders recent years in politics, striving for a fairer US society, often imaging situations in European contries on social- and health welfare), I did find it interesting to read and glad my cradle was not in the USA (but rather in one of the countries in the Top Five of civilians most satisfied with their situation in life!).

I do think the book was writen rather repetitive: instead of 362 pages in this edition I think 260 pages would have been sufficient to make his point.

www.theguardian.com/books/2023/ - /bernie-sanders-new-book
en.wikipedia.org:_Bernie_Sanders

I'm a big fan of the South African author Deon Meyer and his latest book in the Bennie Griessel series, Prooi (EN=Prey), is another real page-turner.

Johnson Johnson's body is found next to the tracks of South Africa's most luxurious train ride. He'd been there for a while and the 'Falcons' Bennie Griessel and his partner Vaughn Cupid are reluctant to accept the 'docket' for a solution so long after the death is very unlikely.
Two suspicious passengers of the train, from which the man apparently jumped, went up in smoke. Both were elderly and seem unlikely to have killed Johnson Johnson (a privat investigator escorting an elderly English lady on the Rovos train) and thrown him out of the window.

There's anothet narrative: After leaving violent life behind, Daniel Darret enjoys a quiet, anonymous life in Paris. But then an old comrade calls on him to serve his homeland. His prey: the corrupt president. The assassination is to take place during a state visit in Paris.
Daniel is very reluctant to give up his anonymous existence but a bunch of ruthless Russians are targeting Daniel's life and molest an elderly lady with whom Daniel has recently struck up a friendship after she painted his portrait.

The two narratives converge in the final chapter without Daniel ever meeting Bennie and Vaughn. We learn about privat details in Bennie's life who aims to pop the question to Alexa. Vaughn's girlfriend has a son and he accuses the Valken of corruption - which Vaughn aims to prove incorrect; but corruption is rife in all layers of government, including the President...
Great reading!

en.wikipedia.org:_Deon_Meyer

Hernen Castle is a well-preserved medieval castle in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands.
It is a Dutch castle from the 14th century.
It is situated in the village of Hernen (municipality of Wijchen), in the far west of the Rijk van Nijmegen. It probably originated around 1350, and then consisted only of a keep and a curtain wall surrounding a bailey. The bailey was later filled in with other buildings, leaving a relatively small courtyard.
The keep collapsed in the 18th century.

The castle has not been permanently inhabited since the 17th century (the owner living in Vlaanderen, that is why it was spared increased modifications) and has never been besieged, which is why it is still largely in its medieval state.
It is the only castle in the Netherlands with a covered wall walk.

The self-guided tour is facilitated in a novel way: one is presented with a lantern, which features a helpful light but also a laser reader which activates a spoken commentary of the 16th century owner talking about his plans to renovate it as such to compete with the Valkhof in Nijmegen, including an impressive tower - which collapsed in the 18th century in a terrific storm (also represented in a loud presentation).

A riveting presentation, a superb visit.

www.glk.nl/hernen/kasteel-hernen
en.wikipedia.org:_Hernen_Castle
More photos on www.flickr.com/photos

Upon a visit to a bookstore a few days ago I came across an Elliott Erwitt title I did not have in my collection yet, and since he recently passed away I decided to buy this pocket-sized 'Paris'.
See also my LFI item further down, on Elliott Erwitt.

'With a keen eye for the real city, Erwitt sees beyond the tourist clichés.
Whether the mightiest of monuments or the charm of la vie quotidienne this master photographer chronicles it all. Alternating intimate details with grand vistas, Erwitt captures the true flavor of la metropole.'

Erwitt was born in Paris, France to Jewish-Russian immigrant parents, Eugenia and Boris Erwitz, who soon moved to Italy.
In 1939, when he was ten, his family migrated to the United States.
He studied photography and filmmaking at Los Angeles City College and the New School for Social Research, finishing his education in 1950.
In 1951 he was drafted into the Army, and discharged in 1953, he served as a photographer's assistant while stationed in France and Germany.
He was influenced by meeting the famous photographers Edward Steichen, Robert Capa and Roy Stryker.
Stryker, the former Director of the Farm Security Administration's photography department, hired Erwitt to work on a photography project for the Standard Oil Company.
He was a member of Magnum Photos from 1953, on an invite by Robert Capa.

www.teneues.com/ - /in-deep-mourning-for-elliott-erwitt
en.wikipedia.org:_Elliott_Erwitt

In art history, you can't ignore the Brueghel family. Painters with the surname Brueghel – also spelled Bruegel – played an unprecedented role in European art for two centuries. The reason? Each and every one of them possessed an exceptional technique and painted entertaining compositions and captivating scenes of the everyday and the beauty of nature.

In contrast to the gigantic paintings of contemporaries such as Caravaggio and Rubens, the works of the Brueghels were painted on a smaller scale. They were also exhibited in a more intimate setting: this way you can see the works up close at your leisure.

How big was the family? Big, very big.
The Brueghel dynasty consists of no fewer than five generations of successful painters, of which Pieter Bruegel the Elder is probably the best known.
The Brueghels were active between 1550 and 1700 and practiced almost all different types of painting. From local and foreign landscapes and scenes from everyday peasant life to allegories, mythical stories, history paintings, animals and flower still lifes; the Brueghels were versed in of all styles and techniques.

www.hetnoordbrabantsmuseum.nl/en/ - - - /the-brueghel-dynasty/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder
More photos on Flickr

William Eggleston (b.27Jul1939-) is an American photographer. He is widely credited with increasing recognition for color photography as a legitimate artistic medium.
His interest in photography took root when a friend at Vanderbilt gave Eggleston a Leica camera.
Eggleston's early photographic efforts were inspired by the work of Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank, and by French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson's book, The Decisive Moment.
First photographing in black-and-white, Eggleston began experimenting with color in 1965 and 1966
after being introduced to the format by William Christenberry. Color transparency film became his dominant medium in the later 1960s.

Eggleston taught at Harvard in 1973 and 1974, and it was during these years that he discovered dye-transfer printing; he was examining the price list of a photographic lab in Chicago when he read about the process.

Eggleston's published books and portfolios include Los Alamos (completed in 1974, but published much later), William Eggleston's Guide (the catalog of the 1976 MoMa exhibit), the massive Election Eve (1977; a portfolio of photographs taken around Plains, Georgia, the rural seat of Jimmy Carter before the 1976 presidential election), The Morals of Vision (1978), Flowers (1978), Wedgwood Blue (1979), Seven (1979), Troubled Waters (1980), The Louisiana Project (1980), William Eggleston's Graceland (1984; a series of commissioned photographs of Elvis Presley's Graceland, depicting the singer's home as an airless, windowless tomb in custom-made bad taste), The Democratic Forest (1989), Faulkner's Mississippi (1990), and Ancient and Modern (1992).

'Mystery of the Ordinary' includes excellent essays by Felix Hoffmann, Jörg Sasse & Thomas Weski.
The book, published by Steidl Verlag at the time of the exhibition in Berlin, in early 2023. It starts with B&W images and shares the same subject matter: at first glance sometimes somewhat banal and of little relevance, adding colour later in his career the images gained in strength.
Both B&W and his work in colour freeze moments in time and the title 'Mystery of the Ordinary' appeals to me enormously!

Felix Hoffmann starts his essay with Egglestone's city walk in Berlin in the 1980s. "As an ethnologist of urban space, the flaneur is a figure who reportson how the city and its images are formed and how perception defines reality."
He further details Egglestone's use of perspective on objects and buildings, his fascination for (a.o.) neon signs, billboards, torn posters, graffiti, and other colour elements.

Jörg Sasse a.o. writes "Everything in his images is placed on equal footing. An object's shadow may be as important as the object itself".
William Eggleston is quoted as having said: "I am afraid that there are more people than I can imagine who can go no further appreciating a picture that is a rectangle with an object in the middle of it, which they can identify. They don't care what is around the object aslong as nothing interferes with the object itself, right in the center."

Thomas Weski's "Welcome to Europe!' follows the timeline, how photographs started to be displayed in Europe (Germany!) as an artistic expression in galleries and museums as recent as the early 1970s.
Weski's essay was most pleasing and informative to me for its history and development on photography on public display as well as Eggleston's career.

I noticed how I became increasingly fascinated by each image the more I browsed this book. But it is much more than just another photobook of work by an iconic photographer.

en.wikipedia.org:_William_Eggleston
Steidl.de/Books/Mystery-of-the-Ordinary
www.all-about-photo.com/ - - - /william-eggleston-mystery-of-the-ordinary

This morning I read on Social Media that Elliott Erwitt (95), iconic photographer, had passed on at his home in New York on 29Nov23.
Only about a week ago LFI Magazine 8/23 was published with Erwitt's photo on the cover and containing a large article about him and his work, announcing he'd won the Leica Hall of Fame award...
For this his work is on display 13Oct23-..Jan24 (perhaps to be extended due to his death?) at Leica's HQ in Wetzlar, Germany while the award ceremony is set to take place next year at the new Leica Gallery in New York City (opening 14Mar24) - according to the article in LFI 8/23.

Elliott Erwitt (born Elio Romano Erwitz, 26Jul1928 – d.29Nov2023) was a French-born American advertising and documentary photographer known for his black and white candid photos of ironic and absurd situations within everyday settings.

Erwitt was born in Paris, France to Jewish-Russian immigrant parents, Eugenia and Boris Erwitz, who soon moved to Italy.
In 1939, when he was ten, his family migrated to the United States.
He studied photography and filmmaking at Los Angeles City College and the New School for Social Research, finishing his education in 1950.
In 1951 he was drafted into the Army, and discharged in 1953, he served as a photographer's assistant while stationed in France and Germany.
He was influenced by meeting the famous photographers Edward Steichen, Robert Capa and Roy Stryker.
Stryker, the former Director of the Farm Security Administration's photography department, hired Erwitt to work on a photography project for the Standard Oil Company.
He was a member of Magnum Photos from 1953, on an invite by Robert Capa.

One of the subjects Erwitt has frequently photographed in his career were dogs: they have been the subject of five of his books. He enjoyed a touch of humour in his photographs!
Erwitt created an alter ego, the beret-wearing and pretentious 'André S. Solidor' (which abbreviates to ass!) — "a contemporary artist, from one of the French colonies in the Caribbean, I forget which one" — to "satirise the kooky excesses of contemporary photography."
From the 1970s, he devoted much of his energy toward movies.

en.wikipedia.org:_Elliott_Erwitt
lfi-online.de/ - - - /lfi-magazine/

Koen Vergeer (1962) is a writer (a.o. for Formula 1 magazine) and racing enthusiast. He published 'Le Mans', 'MaxMania', 'Zandvoort' and 'Kalff'.
A few days after Max Verstappen became world champion in 2021, the book 'Max world champion' was published, in which the historic Formula 1 fight is relived. A good successort to Heinz Prüller sveral decades ago, books I devoured (though after the ever winning Michael Schumacher I lost my appetite for F1 racing, until Max Verstappen appeared in the Formula One racing.
His latest book 'Pole position' was published in March 2022 and since Max secured his 3rd F1 World Championship Vergeer's book 'Het tijdperk Max Wereldkampioen 2023' is soon to be published.

After a great duel and only in the final race (among vehement controversy) Max Verstappen became F1 2021 world champion!
Max finally knocked seven-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton off his throne. For a year, Verstappen and Hamilton kept motorsport followers worldwide in suspense.
Never before has the premier class seen such an intense duel between two top drivers. An absolute thriller captured as such by Koen Vergeer.
The Dutch motorsport writer Vergeer let you relive this historic Formula 1 battle, a prologue chapter to each race followed by the race itself. All the races, overtaking, crashes, intrigue and of course the thrilling ending when the chequered flag dropped for the winner.

Even though the outcome is known, the writing is compelling enough to keep you reading and there are plenty of details on technique and strategy in this book 'Max World Champion' to keep you fascinated.

en.wikipedia.org:_Max_Verstappen

It is often said that you can’t do the same walk twice in New York...
Its history may be short compared to that of European cities, but it is also a history marked by lightning-fast change.
Thanks to the art of photography, we are able to see that fascinating history. This book takes the reader on an enchanted journey through time, from the small town that began as New Amsterdam in the 17th century, through the unbridled expansion and waves of mass immigration in the ensuing centuries, to the post-industrial metropolis that it was to become.

Splendid historical photos make this book, with its elegant gilt-edged finish, a visual homage to the vibrant city that is New York today.

Jacqueline Goossens and Tom Ronse are Belgian journalists and experienced city guides who have lived and worked in New York since 1980.
Their stories about iconic locations and districts like Times Square, Harlem, Wall Street, Central Park, Ellis Island and the Bronx bring the past to life and help the reader to understand how they became what they are today.
The metamorphoses of New York, the evolution of its architecture, infrastructure and art, are all described in illuminating detail.
The lives of the city’s inhabitants, originating from every corner of the world, also receive ample attention.

Writing from the authors’ own experiences lends the book (Hannibal, 2020) a highly personal point of view.
It was a joy to reread NYC's history, adding new details and the photos are wonderful!

www.amazon.nl/New-York- - -Jacqueline-Goossens

Whilst I have no background in economics and lack comprehensive understanding, I did read about the influences of economic philosophers like John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman, and I found this 'graphic' explanation interesting, helpful and educational.
This publication is mainly targeted at the economics of England, the global economic change is obvious and valid for many countries. Am glad that, at least where I live, 'neoliberalism' is being reversed somewhat, and (e.g.) schooling and health care may be delivered from 'market economics to a certain extend.

John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron KeynesCB, FBA (b.05Jun1883 – d.21Apr1946) was an English economist and philosopher whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments.

One of the most influential economists of the 20th century, he produced writings that are the basis for the school of thought known as Keynesian economics, and its various offshoots

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Keynes spearheaded a revolution in economic thinking, challenging the ideas of neoclassical economics that held that free markets would, in the short to medium term, automatically provide full employment, as long as workers were flexible in their wage demands.
Keynes advocated the use of fiscal and monetary policies to mitigate the adverse effects of economic recessions and depressions. He detailed these ideas in his magnum opus, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, published in late 1936.

Keynes's influence started to wane in the 1970s, partly as a result of the stagflation that plagued the Anglo-American economies during that decade, and partly because of criticism of Keynesian policies by Milton Friedman and other monetarists, who disputed the ability of government to favourably regulate the business cycle with fiscal policy.

His book THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE, detailing after the end of WWI how the repayments by Germany demanded by USA, Great-Britain & France, led to WWII, is discussed on MyBlog_2015Q4.

en.wikipedia.org:_John_Maynard_Keynes

Patricia Highsmith (born Mary Patricia Plangman; 19Jan1921 – d.04Feb1995) was an American novelist and short story writer widely known for her psychological thrillers, including her series of 5 novels featuring the character Tom Ripley.
She wrote 22 novels and numerous short stories throughout her career spanning nearly 5 decades, and her work has led to more than two dozen film adaptations.
Her writing derived influence from existentialist literature, and questioned notions of identity and popular morality.

'Deep Water' is a psychological thriller novel by Patricia Highsmith, first published in 1957 by Harper & Brothers. It is Highsmith's 5th published novel, the working title originally being 'The Dog in the Manger'.

Vic and Melinda Van Allen are a couple in the small town of Little Wesley.
Their loveless marriage is held together only by a precarious arrangement whereby, in order to avoid the messiness of divorce, Melinda is allowed to take any number of lovers as long as she does not desert her family.
Vic becomes fascinated with the unsolved murder of one of Melinda's former lovers, Malcolm McRae, and, in order to successfully drive away her current fling, takes credit for the killing. When the real murderer is apprehended, Vic's claims are interpreted by the community as dark jokes.

Perhaps Melinda's immature character (she's a failure as a mother to their daughter Trixie) and promiscuous behaviour was shocking in the 1950s, I rather found Vic's 'head-in-the-sand' behaviour shocking and unbelievable.
Vic is too much of a 'vanilla' figure for me, quite tiresome.
And that's all I want to spend time here on this book.

en.wikipedia.org:_Patricia_Highsmith
en.wikipedia.org:_Deep_Water_(Highsmith_novel)

Arrival ('intocht') of Sinterklaas in Rheden (and various other locations @The Netherlands) at noon yesterday, assisted by his helpers, the Black Petes ('Zwarte Pieten'). By boat of course as he is supposed to have come from Spain and carry with him presents for all the children of Holland!

The Black Petes are still controversial, at least those in 'full black', the ones with smudges (from climbing the chimneys, allegedly, to bring presents to the children) less so. In recent years we saw experiments with fully painted faces in different colours (green, yellow) which I liked. The children are not bothered by any of it, they are fully captured in the moment of the holy man and his funny & acrobatic helpers!

They were welcomed by the mayor of Rheden who did not seem to be suffering from the cold rain. Must have been the only one, very brave!

From this day onward children can put their shoe at the fireplace and during the night Sinterklaas and his helpers will distribute sweets or small presents, a surprise the children will find when they get up the next morning. They can put their shoe only if the 'have been good all year' and sing one of the brief Sinterklaas traditionals. They may also leave something for the horse Sinterklaas goes around on, though the horse seems to becoming less popular, instead Sinterklaas is been driven much like the Pope!
Very much an entire family tradition, if not spoiled by protests..

The tradition of Sinterklaas -in the Netherlands and some other countries- resulted in the (more commercial) Santa Claus tradition in the US.

In spite of the dismal weather, a cold drizzle coming down, there was a good turn out and the children sung their Sinterklaas songs out loud, both as a welcome as well as to stay warm!
The whole procedure went on 'fast forward' I felt, for everybody was feeling the cold.

en.wikipedia.org:_Sinterklaas

This book, published in 2019 and which I recently bought in Venice (bookshop 'Studium') provides a survey of the work of Austrian-born American photographer Inge Morath (1923–2002).
Surviving the Allied bombing of the Berlin factory where she worked, Morath, originally a journalist, became one of the woman photographers to join the Magnum agency.

A formidable intellectual and diversely talented, Morath eventually established herself as a photographer with an unsentimental and direct approach, and also become an early pioneer and champion of color photography.

This volume gathers more than 150 photographs and documents that outlines the main phases of Morath’s career, emphasizing her humanitarian empathy.
Included here are some of Morath’s most influential reportages, from her portrayal of Venice to her gorgeous images of the Danube river; and images taken in countries ranging from Spain to Russia, from Iran to China, to Romania, the US and her native Austria.

After the war, Morath worked as a translator and journalist.
In 1948, she was hired by Warren Trabant, first as Vienna Correspondent and later as the Austrian editor, for Heute, an illustrated magazine published by the Office of War Information in Munich.
Morath encountered photographer Ernst Haas in post-war Vienna, and brought his work to Trabant's attention. Working together for Heute, Morath wrote articles to accompany Haas' pictures.
In 1949, Morath and Haas were invited by Robert Capa to join the newly founded Magnum Photos in Paris, where she started as an editor.
Working with contact sheets sent into the Magnum office by founding member Henri Cartier-Bresson fascinated Morath. "I think that in studying his way of photographing I learned how to photograph myself, before I ever took a camera into my hand".
Morath was briefly married to the British journalist Lionel Birch and relocated to London in 1951. That same year, she began to photograph during a visit to Venice. "It was instantly clear to me that from now on I would be a photographer", she wrote.

www.all-about-photo.com/photo-publications/ - - - /inge-morath-her-life-and-photographs
en.wikipedia.org:_Inge_Morath

Fred Herzog (b.21Sep1930 - d.09Sep2019) is a photographer known primarily for his photographs of life in Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada.
He worked professionally as a medical photographer and in his published photography he was among the first who "became articulate in the language of colour photography before it gained institutional acceptance". A quote from Geoff Dyer who wrote an excellent essay in this book.

Herzog was born and grew up in Stuttgart, Germany, but was evacuated from the city during the aerial bombardment of the Second World War. His parents died during the war (of typhoid and cancer), after which he dropped out of school and found work as a seaman on ships.
He emigrated to Canada in 1952, living briefly in Toronto and Montreal before moving to Vancouver in 1953. He had taken casual photos since childhood, and began to take photography seriously after moving to Canada.

His work focuses primarily on working class people, and their connections to the city around them. He worked with slide film (mostly Kodachrome), which limited his ability to exhibit, and also marginalized him somewhat as an artist in the 1950s and 1960s when most work was in black and white. However, he has been increasingly recognized in recent decades.
His work has appeared in numerous books, and various galleries, including the Vancouver Art Gallery.

This is the 2nd book I have acquired of his work, his work in colour is discussed on MyBlog 2018Q2.

en.wikipedia.org:_Fred_Herzog

'Hoe Waarheid Ons Verdeelt en Ons Weer Kan Samenbrengen'

Can we still believe in truth while our screens are filled with fake news, conspiracy theories and lying politicians? Or do we only believe in our own truth? That's what philosopher Rob Wijnberg wonders during this theatre lecture.
Something true for everyone is a powerful medicine against the persistent cynicism and felt powerlessness of our time.
While our screens fill up with fake news, conspiracy theories and lying politicians...

In 'For Everyone Something True', philosopher Rob Wijnberg shows how truth became more and more private property and slowly but surely we all got our own facts. The result: a society without solidarity,
in which we trust politics, media and science less and less and cynicism reigns supreme.

The only thing that can change that is a bigger story about progress in the 21st century. A story about the next step forward. The ending has a positive note: "a story that shows that together we are capable of unthinkable change."

I am a fan of Wijnberg's writing for its clarity, he obviously a bigger brain than me, a better philosophical understanding of complex matters in our society & world affairs and he manages to saturate it with positive notes.

Wijnberg first paints a bleak picture of fake news, populists in power, confrontational Social Media and popularity of dissatisfaction in media, distrust in science and other aspects why we've lost faith in everything and everybody we trusted in one or two generations ago.
He goes on delving way back in time, how people during centuries had no expectations, no 'truth' to live by except to live by the rules of dictators, warlords and other ruling classes. Philosopher Plato (427-347 <Christ) described 'truth' as something out of this world which influenced thinking for c.20 centuries.
A number of critical aspects are offered in a table -such as Meaning of Truth, Sort of Truth, How came Truth about, Ideologies, Type of person, Attitude of person- and he updates it in a series of tables per chapter. The first table siginifies The Premodern Time 400 BC - 1600 AD.

The change was described by Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) as 'Man's rising from his self-imposed immaturity. Dare to think! Wijnberg regularly offers important quote from well known philosophers, such as Georg Hegel (1770-1831), who contributed for this era '..progress / advancement was not only possible but in certain aspect inevitable'.
And thus Capitalism was introduced.
Adam Smith (1723-1790) argument introduced 'the market', someone delivering something for which there was a need could earn money. Alas, these days Capitalism is also the engine creating economic inequality.
The Industrial Revolution announced the Modern Time. Charles Darwin crushed the idea that Men was created by God and thus a servant to God, Men was considered a being with Rights.

Thomas Hobbe (1588-1679) and John Locke (1632-1704) translated the 'rights' to a Social Contract' between civilians and government.
The developments in this Modern Time (160-1950) was included in the 2nd table for easy comparision.

Oil & gas led to enormous positive changes but two World Wars led to destruction and loss of live all over the world. Fake news and propaganda played a considerable role in the 1930s, after the end of WW2 distrust increased in the leaders who played the Pied Piper's game.
Freedom to form opinions about the news became more individualistic. The start of the Postmodern Era.

The 4th table offers developments in the era of Consumerism. Important aspects were 'Satisfaction of Own Needs' and 'Self-centeredness & Pessimism'.
Next were the years of the Media owning the Truth and people continuously exposed to the Media.
The truth saturated the nerve system of society, people 'owning their own truth' became more polarized, confrontational, closing down on other people's values.

Wijnberg, thank God, ends on a positive note detailing how most people are different from the Loud Mouths on Social Media and those we see discussing and dismissing other on the telly, YouTube, others outlets for Influencers, people who share good common values and who look out for each other. And how humanity has found solutions to change and challenges, and we can expect to find ways to overcome Climate Change and will find ways to come together and fight negativity.

A pleasure to read this book for its clarity, information and positive support.

www.hnt.nl/voorstellingen/7895/rob-wijnberg/voor-ieder-wat-waars (NL)

Thomas Hoepker (German: Thomas Höpker; b.10Jun1936) is a German photographer and member of Magnum Photos. He is known for stylish color photo features. He also documented the 9/11 World Trade Center destruction.
Hoepker originally made a name for himself in the 1960s as a photojournalist with a desire to photograph human conditions.

In 1964 he began working as a photojournalist for Stern.
In the 1970s he also worked as a cameraman for German TV, making documentary films.
In 1976 he and his wife, journalist Eva Windmoeller, relocated to New York City as correspondents for Stern.
From 1978 to 1981 he was director of photography for American Geo.
From 1987 to 1989 Hoepker was based in Hamburg, working as art director for Stern.

Magnum Photos first began distributing Hoepker's photographs in 1964. He became a full member in 1989. He served as Magnum President from 2003 to 2006.

For much of his career Hoepker used Leica cameras. In the 1970s he began to also use single-lens reflex cameras alongside his Leica, using Leicas for wide angle shots and Nikon or Canon cameras with zoom lenses. In 2002 he began using digital SLRs.
I was told recently, not sure if this is true, that he is suffering from dementia these days...? (EMAIL)

This is my 3rd book of his work, this one is far more retrospective for his travels on all (except Africa) continents (including Antarctica!) and includes a portrait of Charles Bukowski and he went walkabout with Mohammed Ali.

His book about New York City is discussed on my Blog 2021Q3
His book about Road Trips USA is discussed on my Blog 2023Q2
His book Italia (Buchkunst Berlin, 2023) is on my Blog 2024Q3
en.wikipedia.org:_Thomas_Hoepker

The Doge's Palace (IT: Palazzo Ducale; Venetian: Pałaso Dogal) is a palace built in Venetian Gothic style, and one of the main landmarks of the city of Venice in northern Italy.
The palace was the residence of the Doge of Venice, the supreme authority of the former Republic of Venice.
It was built in 1340 and extended and modified in the following centuries.
It became a museum in 1923 and is one of the 11 museums run by the Fondazione Musei Civici di
Venezia.
A report of my 2023 visit can be found HERE...

Wikipedia

'Malacqua' – four days of rain in Naples in anticipation of an exceptional event.. Described as a hallucinatory portrait of Naples..

Nicola Pugliese (b.Milan, 08Aug1944 - d.Avella, 25Apr2012) wrote one crushing novel – Malacqua – and then withdrew from literary life!
In this novel, a rainstorm in Naples which lasts for days causes collapsing buildings, sinkholes and miraculous events.

'Malacqua' was published in 1977 by Italo Calvino at the prestigious Einaudi.
Although the entire first edition of the book was sold out within a few days, it was not allowed to be reprinted until after his death at the request of the author.
This 2013 edition was reprinted by Casa Editrice Tullio Pironti, published by special arrangement with Arianna Letizia Agency (in conjunction with 2 Seas Literary Agency). .
The Dutch edition I read was published in July 2023, by Uitgeverij Van Oorschot in Amsterdam.

Nicola had followed in his father's footsteps and became a journalist, while his brother had an artistic career as a film director. Journalism didn't interest Pugliese one bit, he only wanted one write
'Malacqua'...

The narrative is also styled in a continuous 'downpour', there are hardly any paragraphs to take a breath, it's 'torrential', even 'maniacal'.
After a night of unforgiving rain, a phone call arrives at the operator at the Naples police headquarters. A street has subsided and a building has collapsed on Via Tasso.

The sentences are full of repetitions, inner rhyme, alliterations, chiasms, and are written in a compelling rhythm from which you cannot escape. Nicola blasted (!) out his novel at breakneck speed: in just 45 days, he rushed the pages through his typewriter, then sent the copy to Italo Calvino and then allowed no editing.
He said: it's this or nothing.
It takes quite a bit of courage as a young man in his early thirties to present your debut in this way to none other than Calvino himself. (RL comment: he should have had Calvino edit it for him!).

NARRATIVE: The city seems to be washed away under an incessant flood of torrential rains. But there are more mysteries going on: plaintive voices from a medieval castle can be heard and five-lire coins start to make music which can only be heard by ten-year-old girls... Carlo Andreoli, a melancholic journalist, reports on these mysterious events.
"Malacqua is a seductive portrait of a broken city, with its different voices and conflicting desires."

While I could stomach the torrential narrative and the damages in the city (collapsed building and a sinkhole, followed by procrastinating civil servants), the voices from a doll in the castle and music from 5-lire coins are not blessed by a cause (how could it), nor have the gallery of various persons (not even Carlo Andreoli) any much of a connectivity to the narrative.
This book was not meant for me...

Annemart Pilon (1988) is a Dutch literary translator and teacher of Italian and Spanish. She studied Italian, lived in Naples for a number of years and won a Talent Scholarship during the Master of Literary Translation (in training).
She has previously translated works by Erri De Luca, Teresa Ciabatti and Paco Roca, among others.

en.wikipedia.org:_Nicola_Pugliese
Ciaotutti.nl/boeken-lezen-over-italie/malacqua-nicola-pugliese/ (NL)
www.athenaeum.nl/nieuws/vertalers/2023/ - - - alacqua-door-annemart-pilon (NL)

The title for this book is no exaggeration: we are standing at the precipice in our time, the tipping point where we decide the fate of humanity. And while this book was published in 2021 (the last subjects were Joe Biden winning the US Presidency election), the world may even have moved closer to 'the precipice'.

This book is a collection of interviews with Noam Chomsky, linguist, political dissident, and intellectual extraordinaire.
Chomsky has been phenomenally outstanding in each of those fields for decades, and now, in his nineties (!), he is yet again proving that he is not slowing down in the least.

The most topical subjects discussed in this book are the most urgent ones:
The climate catastrophe
Neoliberalism and Republicans
Globalization and imperialism
Trump admistration and Trumpism

Chomsky has a brain the size of a small planet and his explanations are clear and brief about complex matters. He is interviewed by C.J. Polychroniou, and at times Ha-Joon Chang & Robert Pollin step in for an explanation.
Two notes of criticism: the columns are not dated (they start with 'Trump in the White House') and the replies by Noam Chomsky are overlapping in the remarks and expressions, which results in skipping pages.
Informative htis compilation of columns but I've read better books by him.

niklas.reviews/2021/06/30/noam-chomsky-the-precipice/

Alison Nastasi’s Writers and Their Cats explores the (in)famous writerly temperament and its storied penchant for keeping feline company.
So why do writers like cats? Nastasi seems to think the observant, solitary life of a writer is a lot like that of a cat. There also may be a link between the high rates of stress, anxiety, and manic depression in creative circles, and the relief that a cat’s quiet comfort can offer from those afflictions.

Each two-page spread in this 112-page compilation includes a portrait of a famous writer and his or her cat. All of these portraits extend the same invitation to the reader: through them, we can get a sense of the particular strain of intellectual that is the “author.”

In many of these photos, it is the subject who allows us in. In other photos it is the tone, not the subject, that magnifies the writer’s temperament.

Nastasi has compiled photographs from various research centers, archives, museums, and even Instragram accounts. This timeless grouping of writers and portraits proves the longevity of Nastasi’s belief that “In the writer, the cat finds a kindred spirit who is equally attuned to the subtle, unspoken nuances of life.”

I came across this perfectly styled little book, a design by Kristen Hewitt, recently in a fine bookshop in Amsterdam (Robert Premsela). Since less than a week we are again 'parents' of two young kittens, a follow up to two cats over 30+ successive years.
So I guess I was emotionally 'open to cats & kittens' when I held this book and brought it to the cashier.
Btw, did you know August 8th is celebrated as National Cat Day (US?).

Yesterday I attended the opening of the Leica Store Amsterdam, since Sep. 2017 located at Van Baerlestraat
16-H, it has now relocated (only 'a block away'), to no.74.

The new Leica Store Amsterdam, with an area of more than 220m2 consisting of 3 floors and features a state of the art Leica design.
It offers a full range of Leica cameras, lenses, binoculars, accessories, books plus an extensive Leica Vintage section with a good selection of second-hand Leica cameras and lenses.
Also added were two new interesting product categories to the Leica range: Leica Cinema TV and Leica watches.
While I drank a glass of bubblies, two boxes arrived by special delivery: the brand new Leica M11-P in black and silver design. They were put proudly on display immediately!

The newly added 70m2 gallery space offers prominent Leica photographers and new talents the opportunity to showcase their work to a wider audience.
Might I feature there too one day?

When visiting this new Leica Store Amsterdam at Van Baerlestraat 74 (1071 BA Amsterdam), don't forget to pop in at no.78, the Robert Premsela bookshop, which has a magnificent selection of photobooks! Both new as well as 'special offers'.
And of course, across the street is the Stedelijk Museum and the Van Gogh Museum, while a bit further down awaits the Rijksmuseum (these museums require reservations).

www.leicastoreamsterdam.nl
/

With the rise of feminism, women photographers conquered the mainstream, with an increasingly commodified art world now viewing them simply as photographers and not merely a novelty or subcategory.
Some women combined their photography practice with video, installations and other media, while others, such as Cindy Sherman, used the camera as a tool for questioning the concept of imagemaking itself.
Others explore collective memory and the way it is imprinted on the landscape, like Sophie Ristelhueber in Lebanon and Kuwait, and Sally Mann in the United States.
A rising awareness of environmental concerns has gone hand in hand with the issues of globalization and diversity.
Don't forget to use the links to Wikipedia as the biographies of theses women makes for some compelling reading!

Very informative publication, both for the brief biographies as well as the essay by Clara Bouveresse. See further down information Ms Bouveresse.

thamesandhudson.com/photofile-women-photographers-contemporaries

As global tensions rose and the World War II began, many women photographers found themselves under threat or forced into exile. Others, such as Lee Miller and Margaret Bourke-White, worked as war reporters or documented the aftermath of the conflict, but a great number found new creative energy and an increased engagement with political themes.
Photography became a universal language to communicate around the world, and it was used to demonstrate empathy with those outside the establishment and to provide glimpses into the daily lives of women everywhere.

Very informative, both for the biographies as well as the essay by Clara Bouveresse.

Clara Bouveresse is a professor of English studies at the University of Evry/Paris Saclay.
She holds a doctorate in art history from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and has published Histoire de l’agence Magnum (L’art d’être photographe - Flammarion).
In 2017, she was associate curator of Magnum Manifesto, the exhibition organised for the 70th anniversary of the cooperative by Clément Chéroux at the International Center of Photography in New York.
In 2019, she curated the exhibition 'Unretouched Women'. Eve Arnold, Abigail Heyman, Susan Meiselas, presented at the Rencontres de la Photographie festival in Arles, with a catalogue published by Actes Sud.
With Isabella Seniuta and Guillaume Blanc, she curated in 2020-2021 the exhibition Gilles Caron:. Un monde imparfait, with a catalogue published by Le Point du Jour.
She is the author of 3 volumes devoted to women photographers in the 'Photo Poche' collection (Actes Sud, Thames&Hudson, Contrasto, 2020) and of 'Photographies au saut du lit' (to be published in 2023).

thamesandhudson.com/photofile-women-photographers-revolutionaries
www.villamedici.it/en/residenze-brevi/clara-bouveresse

The story begins with Brunetti's father-in-law, Conte Falier, asking him to look into something: there's gossip going around that the Conte's best friend, retired art dealer Gonzalo Rodríguez de Tejada, is planning to adopt his lover, Attilio Circetti, a much younger man, since that would be the only way Italy's inheritance laws would allow him to pass his entire estate to Attilio when he dies.
The Conte fears, in not so many words, that his friend is being scammed.

We're of course treated, as always (and indeed quite tiring and superfluous) to the usual Brunetti family conversations over delicious home-cooked lunches and dinners.

The first murder victim appears on page 172... But it is always a pleasure of walking the streets of Venice with Brunetti and witness the interaction with his colleagues and others.

www.kirkusreviews.com/ - /donna-leon/unto-us-a-son-is-given/
en.wikipedia.org:_Donna_Leon

Frank Horvat (b.28Apr1928 – d.21Oct2020) was an Italian photographer who lived and worked in France.
He is best known for his fashion photography, published between the mid 1950s and the late 1980s. Horvat's photographic opus includes photojournalism, portraiture, landscape, nature, and sculpture.
He was the recipient of the Fondazione del Centenario Award in 2010 for his contributions to European culture.

Horvat was born in Abbazia, Italy (now Opatija, Croatia), on 28 April 1928, into a Jewish family from Central Europe.
Horvat made his debut as a photojournalist in France, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life.
During the mid-1950s he captured the 'sleaze and squalor' of Paris, before going on to fashion photography.

He acknowledged having been strongly influenced by French humanist photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. After meeting HCB in 1950, he followed his advice and replaced his Rollei with a Leica camera and embarked on a two-year journey through Asia as a free-lance photojournalist.
His photographs from this trip were published by Life, Réalités, Match, Picture Post, Die Woche, and Revue.

After going over to fashion, he was soon collaborating with the biggest fashion magazines in the world, including Vogue, Elle and Harper’s Bazaar.
Revolutionizing fashion photography through a more realistic lens, Horvat photographed models on the streets, in the squares, and alongside the locals of postwar Europe.
His fresh and often imitated style, which brought reportage techniques to the forefront of fashion photography, impressed designers and inspired fashion photographers for generations to come.

During 1962-3 Horvat accepted a commission by magazine 'Revue' to visit great non-European cities. He was accompanied by German writer Dieter Lattman and they went to Tel Aviv, Calcutta, Sydney, Bangkok, Hong Kong, onward to the USA and Caracas, Rio de Janeiro and concluded in Dakar.
It was not until 40 years later that these photos made their mark..
By the time Horvat returned from his Around-the-World trip he found his type of fashion photography outdated, and he withdrew partially 'into the country', took to photographing trees and other projects (including portraits) in order to reinvent himself.

thamesandhudson.com/photofile_frank_horvat
en.wikipedia.org:_Frank_Horvat

Wybrand Hendriks (b.24Jun1744, Amsterdam – d.28Jan1831, Haarlem) was a Dutch painter, primarily known for his portraits as well as the concierge of the Teylers Museum.

No other artist is as closely associated with Teylers Museum as Wybrand Hendriks (1744-1831).
At the end of the 18th century, he lived in the Pieter Teyler House and was responsible for running the newly opened Teylers Museum.
As the director of the art collection, he enriched it with phenomenal drawings by masters like Rembrandt and Michelangelo. More than that, however, he was one of the most important artists of his own time.

I enjoyed this retrospective exhibition 'Wybrand Hendriks was here!' earlier this months, the exhibition runs until 07Jan2024.

'Wybrand Hendriks was here!' demonstrates Hendriks’ versatility in all its glory.
The many works by him in the collection of Teylers Museum are supplemented, in this exhibition, with works on loan from the Rijksmuseum, the Amsterdam Museum, the Rijksmuseum Twenthe, the Noord-Hollands Archief, the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels, the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris and several private collections.

Wybrand Hendriks was among the most important artists of his day. He lived during a turbulent period of economic decline, political upheaval and cultural reform.
Due to his employment at Teylers Museum, Hendriks was not dependent on income from his drawings and paintings, and could work freely. This made his oeuvre more varied than that of his contemporaries. He painted and drew in all possible genres: from distinctive – almost caricatural – portraits, accurate still lifes and detailed genre pieces to cityscapes and landscapes with a refreshing, direct and more casual touch.
Hendriks took his subjects from his immediate surroundings. He was politically active and depicted not just the wealthy citizens of Haarlem, but the poor ones, too.
With impressive realism, he made daily life of his time tangible.

www.teylersmuseum.nl/en/ - /wybrand-hendriks-was-here
en.wikipedia.org:_Wybrand_Hendricks

19th-century photographs from the Kurokawa Collection.

More than 150 coloured photographs, from both Japanese and foreign studios, offer a unique insight into the Japan of the late 19th century.

The collection has never been shown before and is among the most important and extensive private collections of Meiji photography in the world.
The 155 photographs, from both Japanese and foreign studios, show an extraordinary artistry and are of important historical value.

The burgeoning photo industry, at the beginning of the Meiji period (1868-1912), found a good market in the influx of Westerners to Japan. Initially, the photos were taken as souvenirs, but soon they started to act as a travel guide. Immediately after arriving in Japan, the tourist was often the first to visit a photo studio. There he ordered the beautifully made photo album that would help him determine his itinerary.

It is noteworthy that these photos also became increasingly popular among a Japanese clientele. They even competed with the woodcut market. This was because these photographs revealed an amazing virtuosity not only in terms of composition but also through the technique of hand coloring. The latter brought the photographs a new level of vibrancy.

Fantastic exhibition, bigger tha I thought and am considering a 2nd visit!

www.sieboldhuis.org/en/
www.flickr.com/photos

Ara Güler (b.16Aug1928 – d.17Oct2018) was an Armenian-Turkish photojournalist, nicknamed 'the Eye of Istanbul' or 'the Photographer of Istanbul'.
He was "..one of Turkey's few internationally known photographers".

In 1958, the American magazine company Time–Life opened a branch in Turkey, and Güler became its first correspondent for the Near East. Soon he received commissions from Paris Match, Stern, and The Sunday Times in London. After completing his military service in 1961, Güler was employed by the Turkish magazine Hayat as head of its photographic department.
About this time, he met Henri Cartier-Bresson and Marc Riboud, who recruited him for the Magnum Photos agency, which he joined (though later withdrew from).

Güler traveled on assignment to Iran, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Kenya, New Guinea, Borneo, as well as all parts of Turkey.
In the 1970s he photographed politicians and artists such as Indira Gandhi, Maria Callas, John Berger, Bertrand Russell, Willy Brandt, Alfred Hitchcock, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso.
Some (and I am one of them) consider his most renowned photographs to be his melancholic black and white pictures taken mostly with a Leica camera in Istanbul, during the 1950s and 1960s mainly.

en.wikipedia.org:_Ara_Güler
www.foam.org/nl/events/ara-guler
AraGuler.com.tr/

'On Sunday afternoon, 16Jan22, Simon Ophof passed on peacefully in the presence of his family. He was 74 years old and had been seriously ill for some time.
Simon was a photographer and photo collector and in his working life rector of a large school community for many years. He has frequently used his photographic and administrative knowledge and skills for the Dutch 'Fotobond'.
Many 'Fotobond' members know Simon from the book "talking about photos", which he wrote together with Hans Brongers, and served as a guideline for the photo discussion course.'

www.fotobond-brabantoost.nl/ - /in-memoriam-simon-ophof-1947-2022/

Photographer Xiaoxiao Xu’s journey along the Great Wall of China has resulted in 2 projects: Shooting the Tiger (2014) and Watering My Horse by a Spring at the Foot of the Long Wall (2017-2018).
The 25.000 km road trip was part of Xu’s exploration of the country of her birth. Her compassion for the people she met around the wall and the stories she tells about them reveal a part of Chinese culture and society through the eyes of someone who looks at it with both distance and recognition.

A very pleasant contrast with the exhibition I looked at prior to this one (see below) by Xiaoxiao Xu, but the photos in festive dress did no compute with me, with those casually dressed. Perhaps I missed something in the information.
In spite of my special interest in China I did not buy both books for sale, I gave priority to 6 books who were in relation to the Women photographers on the Frontline. Also, both Xu's editions did not appeal to me in terms of their production (paper and a standing format).

With Life Along the Long Wall, Fotomuseum Den Haag is presenting Xu’s first solo museum exhibition (27 May — 22 Oct 2023).

www.fotomuseumdenhaag.nl/en/exhibitions/life-along-long-wall
Xiaoxiaoxu.com

The exhibition 'Women on the Front Line – Photography from Lee Miller to Anja Niedringhaus' rejects the notion that war photography is a man’s business.
It highlights the work of 8 female photographers who bravely stood their ground in dangerous, male-dominated situations on the front lines, from the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) to the battlefields of Afghanistan in 2014.
The exhibition features photographs by Lee Miller (1907–1977), Gerda Taro (1910–1937), Catherine Leroy (1944–2006), Christine Spengler (b. 1945), Françoise Demulder (1947–2008), Susan Meiselas (b. 1948), Carolyn Cole (b. 1961) and Anja Niedringhaus (1965–2014).
It will be shown at the Fotomuseum Den Haag from 19 August to 26 November 2023.

In addition to overturning the stereotypical image of the war photographer, the rise, development, and impact of war photography are highlighted through the work of these photographers.
Throughout history, photographers have managed to bring the war down to individual bravery and suffering, allowing the outside world to empathize with the conflict and feel compassion.
The impact of war photography has, on more than one occasion, shifted public opinion regarding democracy and the violation of human rights.

www.fotomuseumdenhaag.nl/en/
Flickr.com

The Hero's Way by Tim Parks
'Walking with Garibaldi from Rome to Ravenna'

The book opens with an 'Author's Note', explaining how Parks met an Italian woman in 1978, married and moved to Italy. He lived there ever since (presently in Milan).
Long ago, for his A-levels, he chose the unification of Italy, Risorgimento, in 1861.
Guiseppe Garibaldi, the extraordinary guerrilla warrior with a South American past played an important role (with others of course, such as Guiseppe Mazzini, Camillio Cavour and Vittorio Emanuele II).
But before Garibaldi's success in Sicily in 1860 ('Expedition of the Thousand'), he fled from Rome in 1849 with a force of 4.000 volunteers and led his men hundreds of kilometers through Umbria and Tuscany, avoiding the crushing armies of the French and the Austrians.
After 32 exhausting days, often in darkness and through difficult mountainous terrain, the sly Garibaldi and his faithful Anita moved his ever decreasing number of followers to the coastal region, fed by sympathizers, letting the armies in pursuit thinking his army was much bigger than it actually was and by sending expeditions to all directions obscured his intended routing.

In this unique travelogue, he recounts retracing the exact 500-kilometer route from Rome to Ravenna taken by the patriotic Italian guerrilla fighter Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1849, after the French crushed the fledgling Roman Republic he was defending.
Parks and his partner (Eleonora Gallitelli, garabaldini) did it in one month on foot; with a smartphone and apps in hand and small cafés, hotels, and pharmacies in every village, such a trip seems less like a pilgrimage than a pleasant daily workout.
I read this book while doing a roadtrip along various places of interest to me in Italy in September, from Venice to Urbino and Alberobello, Matera to Metaponto and Lago's Bolsena and Iseo. The descriptions by Tim Parks, such as often a lack of hiking trails or footpaths along the roads, facing high speed lorries racing past in close proximity or forced to find a way through brams or ignoring signs of 'no tresspassing'.
Their quest was not a simple one!

Fascinating is Park's description of the unimaginable courage, suffering, and idealism of Garibaldi’s band of 5.000 ragged soldiers. As they crossed a countryside with little infrastructure, hounded constantly by crack Austrian and French forces, 95 percent of them deserted or died...
Parks is also attentive to the melancholy ironies of contemporary life in the Italian countryside, with its ever-smaller and ever-older population. And put a number of towns and places in my mind as options for a future visit!

Parks has published dozens of books, among them award-winning novels, translations of Italian fiction, and, what is most distinctive, nonfiction about Italy. I am sure I may read mor eof him, perhaps while travelling again in this fascinating country.

en.wikipedia.org:_Giuseppe_Garibaldi
www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/ - /2021-04-20/heros-way-walking-garibaldi
en.wikipedia.org:_Unification_of_Italy
www.kirkusreviews.com/ - /tim-parks/the-heros-way/
en.wikipedia.org:_Tim_Parks
https://timparks.com/